Don Walden, 86, is a fifth-generation Plant City native. He traveled all over the world during his military career, but nothing could stop him from returning to his geographical roots, where he is now known for his leadership and involvement in a long list of community organizations.
“It’s home,” Walden said. “The lifelong friends … And I still have a lot of relatives in the area.”
Walden’s military career sent him back and forth across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans for 22 years.
Within three months of graduating in 1950 from Stetson University, Walden had married his wife, Lois, and enlisted in the U.S. Army for infantry training. The next fall, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant, stationed in Atlanta.
WORLD TOUR
In 1954, just after the Korean War, Walden was sent to South Korea, and he remained there for almost two years. His next assignment was Fort Hood, Texas, where he was stationed with the Fourth Armory Division. He then went overseas again — this time, to Germany.
At the time, the German sewer systems were damaged, and U.S. soldiers were advised not to drink the water.
“It was a good opportunity to drink beer instead of water. Or wine,” Walden said.
He was in Germany for three years as a company commander but would return later in a different position.
Next was Fort Lee, Va., but soon after that, in the early 1960s, Walden left his wife and two daughters in the U.S. and went to Vietnam. He went to Vietnamese language school, which he found difficult, because Vietnamese is a tonal language. One word can have numerous meanings, based on the vocal inflection.
Walden was in Vietnam for one year then returned to Fort Benning, Ga., where he helped review and develop infantry equipment. But, this station was short-lived, and he returned to Germany with the Third Armored Division as a commander for support battalion.
Walden’s younger daughter, Lee-Ann, easily picked up German while the family lived in Europe.
“In fact, she was bilingual,” Walden said. “At that age, very limited, but still.”
His older daughter, Selinda, learned “enough to get by in the restaurants.” But, her language skills improved, while she worked as a candy striper in a military hospital near their home.
Walden said his second stint in Germany was more difficult.
“That was the height of the number of troops in Vietnam, so they were downsizing a lot of units from other places,” he said. “I still had to perform a duty on a reduced number of people.”
In the late 1960s, Walden was sent back to Asia from Europe.
“I dropped my family off over in Pinellas County and went directly to Vietnam for my second tour,” he said.
Then, it was back to the U.S., but a new region: the Midwest, at the Army Depot, in Savanna, Ill.
“When I got my orders, I thought it was Savannah, Ga., and I was really thrilled,” Walden said. “Then, I found out it was Illinois, in a smaller town — right at 5,000 people. It was right out in the wheat fields.”
RETIREMENT
Walden retired from the Army in 1972, but his professional and civic endeavors were far from complete.
Walden’s father, Don Walden Sr., died in 1957. He left behind an orange grove, which Don Walden Jr. operated for a while after finishing his service. After that, Walden entered the real estate business. He is now the president of Donco Realty Inc., housed in a downtown building he built in 1976.
Throughout the years, Walden has received awards for his leadership in the Plant City Kiwanis Club, the Realtors Political Action Committee and the Plant City Board of Realtors. He was the first chairman of Plant City’s Community Redevelopment Agency, and also has been involved with the Eastern Hillsborough Historical Society, Plant City Arts Council, Plant City Photo Archives & History Center, and Plant City Entertainment.
“I’m still active and will continue to be so long as I can,” Walden said.
LOCAL LORE
Walden’s family has been in and around Plant City since the 1860s. Both of his parents were born in Dover.
The Walden Lake community was named for a distant relative, who had a homestead on the east side of the lake. An out-of-town chemical company eventually bought all of the land in that area, to be mined for phosphorus. But, the mining project never got off the ground, and a real estate agency acquired the land to develop it in the early 1970s.
The lake had been known informally as Walden Lake, because Walden’s distant relatives lived there in the 1890s, and the developers liked the similarity to Walden Pond, where writer David Henry Thoreau lived and was inspired to pen his famous book. The name stuck, and this time, it became official.
“That’s the story I heard, anyway,” Walden said.
Contact Catherine Sinclair at csinclair@plantcityobserver.com.